The 31 year-old who now lives in Kings Norton with her husband and three children said her parents took her and her sisters to have the procedure after buying them new clothes and telling them that they were going to a party.

But once they arrived at a house for the party, Sarata realised it was not going to be a happy occasion.

“I heard my two sisters screaming and then saw an old woman coming to get me and I started running but there was nowhere to go and no-one to run to,” she told the Birmingham Mail.

“As soon as I got in the backyard I saw my two sisters lying on the floor bleeding excessively whilst the cutter had covered their faces with scarves.

“Then one of them held me down on the floor, others tied by eyes, covered my mouth and stretched my legs apart and then I felt a sharp cut in between my legs.

“It was the worst pain of my life and I screamed for help but no-one came to help me.”

FGM survivor Sarata Jabbi speaks at Sandwell Council House debate

She said she had since learned that traditionally after a girl has been cut, all the elder women “celebrate” by singing and dancing.

But this didn’t happen in her case.

“There was neither singing nor dancing because one of my sisters had fainted due to heavy bleeding and was rushed to hospital,” she said.

Sarata said after she had been cut, the cutter told her she was now a “good, clean woman”.

She said three months after undergoing the procedure she was still in great pain and going to the toilet to urinate was extremely painful.

Sarata also spoke frankly about the effect FGM had on her intimate relations with her husband – who is totally against FGM.

“Before I came to Britain and started campaigning, I thought my private parts were the same as other women’s and thought all women found sex horrible and painful,” she said.

She said when she gave birth to her two eldest children in Gambia there were difficulties during labour and she ended up being cut again and then stitched back up.

It was only when she came to Britain and had her third child that she had a relatively “normal” birth and did not have to be cut again.

Sarata now spends her time campaigning against FGM, which is illegal in Britain, and going into schools and into communities to spread the message that it is child abuse.

“I hope to encourage other people to come forward and speak about their experience,” she said.